Car GPS for Geocaching

[+Sussler]

Hi all. I imagine this question has been asked a number of times but I can't seem to find it out there, so bear with me. Years ago I bought a Garmin Nuvi 500 that worked fine for the car and had a specific mode for geocaching. Unfortunately it has bitten the dust. I'd like to find another with a similar setup. Basic car GPS, no special bells and whistles needed, but with built in support for geo. Is that kind of functionality still available? Any suggestions? Thanks much.

[+gpsblake]

I don't think any are in production, a Garmin Montana is about the closest thing and with it's large screen can work as a car GPS unit but it's primarily a handheld unit. It's also very expensive, you can buy a good handheld GPS unit like the Garmin 62s or etrex 20 and buy a cheap auto GPS to load in geocaches as favorites or Custom POI.

 

It's a shame because Garmin could easily have put that feature into any of their units easily as they did with the Nuvi 500/550 series. And I am surprised someone like TomTom doesn't put it in theirs considering they don't have a handheld GPSr line and would immediately sell them like hotcackes to the geocaching community if they did put in a true paperless geocaching car unit at an affordable price.

[+ecanderson]

My alternative has been to use GSAK to create POI categories (*ov2 files) for my TomTom units. Most typically, I'll even break them into traditional, multi, puzzle, etc. and I have the gc.com style icons associated with each. I also keep a friend's requirements (those I have found but he has not) in a separate category with a green smiley icon so we don't accidentally drive by something he might need. All of these are displayed on the map view as we drive, and the TomTom is used for 'coarse navigation' to the site.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

Hi all. I imagine this question has been asked a number of times but I can't seem to find it out there, so bear with me. Years ago I bought a Garmin Nuvi 500 that worked fine for the car and had a specific mode for geocaching. Unfortunately it has bitten the dust. I'd like to find another with a similar setup. Basic car GPS, no special bells and whistles needed, but with built in support for geo. Is that kind of functionality still available? Any suggestions? Thanks much.

 

The 500 and 550 were it....really nice products and my first " paperless " units, still use my 500 at times.

Maybe check Ebay or the net for a used one.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garmin-nuvi-550-Automotive-Mountable-Great-Condition-/191319371640?pt=GPS_Devices&hash=item2c8b85ef78

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garmin-nuvi-500-Automotive-Mountable-GPS-Receiver-/261586829362?pt=GPS_Devices&hash=item3ce7ca4032

 

The 500 appears a little rougher...it has Topo and 550 has Canada.

Edited September 13, 2014 by BAMBOOZLE

[+FunnyNose]

My 265WT recently died. I had to buy 3 garmin units to finally find one that still does the Garmin POIs correctly. I now own a Garmin 2598LMT and it works good for me.